Federer 'Realistic', But A Dangerous Foe At Roland Garros

  • Posted: May 28, 2021

After Roger Federer lost his opening match at the Gonet Geneva Open last week against Pablo Andujar, the Swiss admitted it is likely he will not win Roland Garros.

“I’m just realistic that I know I will not win the French and whoever thought I would or could win it is wrong,” Federer said. “Of course crazier things might have happened, but I’m not so sure in the past 50 years at the French Open somebody just rocked up at 40 years old being out for a year and a half and [went] on to just win.”

However, the Swiss has enjoyed plenty of success on the Parisian clay throughout his career. And if the 39-year-old is able to play his way into form as he continues his comeback from two arthroscopic right knee surgeries, he will still be a dangerous opponent.

Federer has advanced to at least the quarter-finals here in 11 of his past 12 appearances, and in 2014 he lost in the fourth round. The 103-time tour-level titlist completed his Career Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2009 and made the championship match on four more occasions.

Although Federer’s best surfaces have been grass and hard courts, the 20-time Grand Slam champion has been one of the best players on clay on the ATP Tour.

Federer is third on the all-time list for the most match wins at Roland Garros with 70, only trailing 13-time winner Rafael Nadal (100) and World No. 1 Novak Djokovic (74). The 39-year-old also has the third-most clay-court titles among active players with 11, trailing only Nadal (62) and Djokovic, who can win his 16th on the surface Saturday in Belgrade.

That is not just a function of how long Federer has played, either. He has won 75.9 per cent of his clay-court matches, which is also good for third among active players behind Nadal (91.6%) and Djokovic (79.7%).

There was more good news for Federer when qualifiers were placed in the Roland Garros draw on Friday evening. The eighth seed learned he will play a familiar foe in Denis Istomin, against whom he has a 7-0 ATP Head2Head record. Federer will hope to play his best and get off to a good start at his first Grand Slam since the 2020 Australian Open.

“I feel like in practice I’ve been playing better,” Federer said in Geneva. “But then again as we know, matches are a different animal.”

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